Ukulele or Uke is a stringed musical instrument in the shape of a guitar. It is derived from the identical instrument machete da braça, which was brought to Hawaii (then known as the Sandwich Islands) by immigrants from the Portuguese island of Madeira. The first makers of the instrument in Hawaii are the Portuguese Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias and Jose do Espirito Santo, who arrived in the country in 1879. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs classification, it belongs to the chordophone family. Its shape is similar to that of a guitar, but the two instruments differ in size, as the ukulele is considerably smaller than the guitar. They also differ in the number of strings, with the ukulele having four instead of the six that the guitar typically has. Its basic tuning is sol-do-mi-la, while la-re-fa sharp-si and re-sol-si-mi are still used.
The ukulele is taught in recent years at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory as an independent study course without exams obligation. The course is 40 minutes per week.
